


Fireteam Harmony

by Spark Plug (PlotholeFragments)



Category: Destiny (Video Games), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 15:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14957414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlotholeFragments/pseuds/Spark%20Plug
Summary: They are calling it the Age of Triumph. Multiple threats to the Last City have been dispatched. The Traveler is beginning to heal. The children are no longer frightened.But for one warlock, her inability to master the self-resurrection technique Fireborn has drawn the ire of the Warlock Vanguard, Ikora Rey. Faced with an ultimatum, she dives deeper into herself in search of an identity she can truly call her own.What she finds, and the friends she finds with it, could permanently change the balance between Light and the Darkness.Crossover with the video game Destiny and My Little Pony gen 4. Takes place at the end of Destiny 1 (Rise of Iron) and before Destiny 2. Familiarity with the settings is recommended.





	1. Awakening

The warlock walked into the Vanguard hall, not missing the glares on the way in. “You wanted to see me, Vanguard?” she said as she approached Ikora.

Ikora turned to her. Her expression was perfectly schooled; only a slight narrowing of her eyes betrayed her frustration. “Something has to change, guardian,” she said.

The warlock tensed while her ghost fidgeted nervously at her side. “You know I’m one of the hardest working guardians out there,” she said.

“And that is commendable. But every guardian must contend with the fact that the Light works in different ways for different guardians.” Ikora held up the data pad she was holding. “This is the fifth strike fireteam that has reported your inability to properly utilize your Light.”

“If this is about Fireborn—“

“Of course it’s about Fireborn, guardian!”

Ikora closed her eyes and took a breath. The warlock did her best to stand there even though she could practically feel every person in the room pointedly not staring at her.

“The Fireborn technique requires a particular state of mind, guardian,” Ikora continued, her voice back to its even tone. “In order to remake oneself without a Ghost channeling Light, one must be immersed in the Light and have a full and honest picture of themselves. You are a hard working and studious guardian, yes...” Ikora sighed. “But you lack the mental clarity to honestly know yourself.”

The warlock narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think I can do it.”

Ikora matched her stare. “Guardian, in order to remake yourself, you have to know what you’re making. You have to know who you are and be at peace with it. This is not something that can be taught; it is not something that can be gleaned from a text.” She put the data pad down. “No, guardian; I don’t think you can do it.”

She held up a hand. “But, a scholar must always be willing to be proven wrong. You have one week to show progress. You have one month to show you can reliably perform the technique. And if either of us feel that your talents are best redirected elsewhere, then we will redirect your talents.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “Have I made myself clear, guardian?”

* * *

The warlock stormed over to the vaults and started flicking through the screens.

Her ghost twitched nervously next to her. “Please tell me we aren’t about to do something monumentally stupid,” it said in it’s near-monotone.

“What gives you that impression, Ghost?” she muttered. She clicked through to the last screen and swore. “Son of a Dreg.”

“No heavy ammo synths?”

“Nope.” She shut down the terminal and started marching toward the hanger.

“Okay,” her ghost continued, “I stand corrected. We’re only doing something mildly stupid.”

“You heard Ikora.”

“And I don’t think this is what she had in mind when she spoke to you!”

“Well it’s what she’s getting,” the warlock snarled as they walked up to the mechanic station.

Amanda Holliday was chatting amicably with a blonde female titan in orange armor. “Ain’t nothing like a warm pecan pie. Throw a few chocolate chips in it?”

The titan laughed. “Y’all know I’d never turn that down,” she answered, matching Amanda accent-for-accent, “But my heart belongs to an apple pie. It’s in my blood.”

Amanda nodded. “Fair enough. Y’all should come by sometime. If you’ve got the recipe, that is.”

The warlock cleared her throat.

Amanda made no outward sign of annoyance, but everyone present felt it anyway. “What’s up, Guardian?”

The warlock clamped down on her emotions. “I need my ship,” she said as evenly as she could.

Amanda stared back.

“Please,” the warlock ground out.

Amanda turned and started messing with her console. “Ship nu—“

“WH543. Sometime today would be nice.”

Amanda’s stare turned into a glare. With slow, obvious movements, she folded her arms. “Can’t summon a ship without a flight plan.”

The titan shuffled awkwardly. “Aman—“

“I’m going to the Iron Temple.”

“What for.”

“Reasons.”

“Reasons like?”

“Reasons I don’t feel like getting into with you,” the warlock snapped. “Now are you going to do your job or not?”

“Hey now!” the titan yelled, holding her not-insubstantial arms at each of them. “Amanda, you ain’t a jerk, so don’t act like it.” She turned her full attention to the warlock. “Now, is there something specific eating you, or are you just normally more ornery than a cow with a thistle lodged up her tail?”

The warlock seethed. “I’m fine.”

“Horseapples,” the titan spat. “You don’t want to talk about it, say so.”

The warlock held the stare for a moment before sighing and hanging her head. “Look, I’m sorry,” she said. “You too, Amanda. Not you guys’ fault I’m a failure of a guardian.”

Amanda rolled her eyes and tapped her console. “Ship’s coming up.”

The titan softened her glare. “Now, I seriously doubt you’re as much a failure as you think.”

The warlock snorted. “Tell that to Ikora.”

The titan winced. “She give you a dressing down?”

The warlock nodded and sighed. “So now I’m going to head out to the Iron Temple, buy some heavy ammo from Shiro, find a nice, secluded spot in the Cosmodrome, and spend the afternoon blowing myself up and seeing if I can pull myself together. Literally.”

“Sounds like a fun time,” Amanda quipped with a smile. “Beats jumping off the tower, right?”

The warlock laughed in spite of herself. The titan clapped her on the shoulder—gently, but not gently enough.

“Whatever you got going on, I know it’ll work out,” she said gently.

The warlock frowned. “How can you possibly know?”

The titan stepped back and appraised her. “Because I’ve heard of you. Hardest working warlock out there, on the team that took out Omnigul?” She nodded. “You’ll get it. Call it a hunch if you have to.”

The warlock nodded and walked toward her ship. She paused next to Amanda. “Anything you need from the Cosmodrome?” she said with a weak smile. “Might as well make myself useful while I’m there.”

Amanda thought for a second before pulling a data chip off of a nearby shelf. “I was going to take this to Zavala to add to the beacons, but if you’re headed down there anyway...”

The warlock’s ghost scanned the chip. “Got it,” he said. “We’ll get what you need.”

* * *

"It was just down there that I found you," the ghost said. "We ghosts... we don't know what our guardians are going to look like. Not on the outside, at least."

The ghost and its guardian looked out over Old Russia, the fresh snow covering the rusted cars and falling gently down the towering walls of the Cosmodrome.

"Getting sentimental, ghost?" the guardian said, an audible smirk to her voice.

The ghost twitched itself. "I'm allowed," it said petulantly. It turned back to the deck of the Fallen ketch. "Do you think we should clear out the other decks?"

The guardian shrugged. "Does anything show up on the scanner?"

"Nope."

The guardian took off her helmet and shook her red-and-blonde-streaked hair out. "Then let's get some fresh air," she said, taking a long whiff of the winter breeze.

The ghost sighed audibly. "If I had lungs... No, I still wouldn't. I don't understand your obsession with 'fresh air.' Helmets exist for a reason."

The guardian sat down at the edge of the skiff and let her legs dangle over the side. "Ah, call it a remnant," she said with a dismissive wave.

The ghost hovered closer to look her in the eyes. "I'm sorry I can't find more, guardian."

The guardian shook her head and tried to wave it off. "It's okay," she said, "I know Golden Age records are spotty at best." She closed her eyes and rested her head against the railing. "I just thought that there was something..."

The ghost bumped her in the shoulder. "You know you liked the outdoors," it said. "I know of plenty of guardians that don't even know that about their past lives."

The guardian tried to smile. "Thanks, ghost," she said. "I just feel like if I could find one thing: a name, a place... Something real to tie me back to..."

She glanced at the ghost and sighed. "Lucky you," she said sardonically. "You got the defective guardian that keeps obsessing over her past instead of fighting for the future."

This time the ghost bumped her head. "Stop it, guardian," it said. "Everyone's allowed their hobbies. No one's going to fault a guardian for digging into the past, especially if that guardian's a warlock."

It flew around to stare her directly in the face. "And no matter what, you're still _my_ guardian. We're together until the end."

The guardian smiled more broadly. "Thanks," she said.

In the distance, a jumpship shot through the upper atmosphere. The ghost turned toward the sound. "I think we've got incoming..."

Another guardian–a hunter–materialized onto the deck of the ketch, her ghost appearing a second later. She took a look at the warlock and pulled her own helmet off, revealing a rainbow-hued head of hair pulled back into a bun. "Warlock," she said in a scratchy voice.

"Hunter," the first guardian answered, standing up. "What brings you over here?"

The hunter walked over to a computer console near the cabin. "Been scouring Fallen ships for Splicer intel. Zavala wants to hit them pretty hard now that the SIVA vault and Aksis have been taken care of."

The warlock peered over her shoulder as she and her ghost browsed through the system. The hunter glanced back at her, and for a split second the warlock saw something in between joy and frustration before the hunter turned back to the computer.

"What're you doing tonight?" the hunter said after a moment.

The warlock blinked in surprise. "Nothing I can think of, why?"

The hunter shrugged. "There's a neat little ramen shop in the city. Cayde swears by it. If you want to check it out we can..."

The warlock was slightly taken aback. While a social request wasn’t _that_ unheard of, it wasn’t exactly _common_ either. Her gut instinct was to turn the hunter down. And yet–

_friend_

"Wait, go back!" the warlock said, running up next to the hunter and pointing at the screen.

The hunter glanced–glared?–at the warlock and started scrolling backwards. "See something you like?" she said evenly.

The warlock stared intently at the screen as the images flickered past–

_home_

She shoved the hunter's hands away. "This," she said, pointing at a six-point star on the screen. "This means something."

"Everything means something," the hunter said.

“Yeah, but this means something important...” The warlock rounded on her. "You know what it means, don't you?"

The hunter didn't move. "Why would you think that?" she said, her voice still unnaturally even.

The warlock narrowed her eyes. "I'm not in the mood for riddles, hunter. What do you know?"

The hunter narrowed her eyes back. "It's not that simple, Sunset."

_i'm so sorry_

_fit of jealous rage_

_you're always welcome here_

The warlock shook the images away. The hunter's eyes widened. "Oh, ponyfeathers," she muttered.

"Who's Sunset?"

The hunter facepalmed. "It's not that simple," she ground out. The warlock was pretty sure she saw a tear in the corner of her eye.

The warlock turned back to the console. The star–

_mark_

–meant something in her past, she was sure of it. If she could just remember–

_don't forget me_

–what it was in her past–

_not today_

–that was being triggered by the mark–

_friendship royalty danger safety_

–then maybe she could–

_But you cannot wield it_

"Sunset!"

_Even with all that magic and power_

–finally figure out–

"Sunset!"

_you'll still be alone_

"Guardian!" her ghost yelled.

The warlock snapped back to reality in time to see a shock grenade embed itself into the screen. She instinctively jumped back and pulled out her hand cannon. When the grenade exploded, she dove to the side into the smoke and started picking off the group of dregs that were coming out of the cabin.

"Helmet incoming!" her ghost said above her, materializing her helmet around her head. The warlock checked her heads up display: several dregs, two vandals, and a Fallen captain. With a Scorch Cannon.

"Still here, hunter?" she said into her radio.

"What, thought I'd sit out a fight, warlock?" the hunter answered with an audible grin. "I've got an Arc Blade charged; can you distract the big guy while I take care of the mooks?"

"On it," the warlock said, breaking cover just enough to draw a bead on the captain's head. To her left, she heard the sizzle of the hunter's Arc Blade activating, and as much as she wanted to watch the swirling vortex of electricity and death, she had a job to do. She took two shots at the captain.

The captain flinched, shook its head, then looked straight at her.

"Well, you got it's attention," her ghost said.

"How's my Radiance?" she answered, taking another shot. The captain just took the hit and aimed its cannon at her.

"You're super charged."

"Good, because–"

The cannon blanketed the the five feet around the warlock in fire and blasted her away.

"Of course," her ghost muttered, working to gather enough light to revive her. It looked over toward the hunter just in time to see her take a shot from a vandal's wire rifle right in the head.

"And we might be here for a little while," it muttered as the hunter's ghost hovered over her body.

* * *

_You are strong and talented, but you lack humility._

A beautiful castle on the side of a mountain.

An ornate mirror that was more than it seemed.

A tall brick school. 

_Destroy the portal; you are not getting this crown._

The face of the building in ruins. A deep crater.

_The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria._

The climb out of the hole. Rebuilding the building.

Rebuilding.

_I've missed you,_

Returning.

_I've missed you, Sunset Shimmer._

Remembering.

_Sunset Shimmer, we need you!_

* * *

The warlock's ghost felt the Light around it shift. "Is this?"

An affirmative glow from the warlock's soul.

"All right, then!" The ghost worked to gather the ambient Light together as the warlock's soul flared bright, and in a flash of fiery Light, the warlock reformed herself. Light coalesced into matter which bonded together into bone and muscle. The ghost worked in tandem, binding together carbon fiber nanoweave and titanium alloy plates to build her armor and weapons around her. The ghost found things a little odd this time around, but there was no time to question it, only time to act.

The two remaining dregs got fusion grenades. The captain appeared to be puzzled, but the warlock didn’t stop to consider that. Acting on instinct, she planted her forehooves, turned away from the captain, and delivered a solar-infused buck straight into his midsection. And when that didn’t finish him off, another solar-infused punch and fusion grenade did.

As her radiance ended, she turned and spotted the remaining vandal. With a snarl, she drew her sniper rifle and—

She looked down. At her hooves. That wouldn’t fit though the trigger guard.

“Oh,” she said.

“Let’s get the hunter!” her ghost yelled. “Worry about this later!”

A shot from the vandal that nearly singed her flank startled her into action. She dove over to where the hunter’s ghost hovered, put one hoof on her ghost, and the other on the hunter’s.

The hunter’s ghost began spinning. “Revive in 3,” it said with a deep voice.

The hunter reappeared, and in one fluid motion drew an auto rifle, aimed, and took out the last vandal.

Both guardians—and their ghosts—let out audible sighs of relief.

“You win, Ghost,” the warlock said, sitting down. “Next time we sweep the decks.”

The hunter collapsed, then turned to look at the warlock who was missing her armor save for her robes and bond. And was suspiciously pony-shaped, complete with her yin-yang sun mark on her flank. “Seriously?” she said.

Sunset just raised an eyebrow. “That hair come naturally, or did you have to dye it?” She smirked. “Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow just stared for a moment. “I’m going to hug you,” she said finally.

“Wait, wh—“

Rainbow dove, grabbed the pony by the neck, and pulled her in. “Sweet Celestia, I thought you’d never wake up, Sunset!” she said, somewhere between a yell and a sob.

Sunset shifted around until she could wriggle her foreleg free, which she instantly wrapped around Rainbow’s neck. “How long have you known?”

“Too long. But I couldn’t just tell you.”

Sunset groaned. “Memory block with an unknown trigger?”

“Something like that. I recognized Fluttershy right off but every time I tried to get her to remember she just got angrier.”

“Wait, Fluttershy got angry?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said with an awkward laugh. “So you can see why I wasn’t too keen on trying to force you to wake up.”

Sunset pulled herself away. “Next question,” she said, looking herself over before turning back to Rainbow. “Why the hell am I a pony?”

“You pulled yourself together,” her ghost said. “This is what your soul looks like.” It hovered closer. “I... I should update my subroutines.”

“No!” Sunset said, a little too quickly. “You’ve still got the old revive subroutine?”

”Yes...”

“Good.” She hoofed up her rocket launcher and trotted a few feet away. “Rainbow, can I get a rez?” Sunset’s horn glowed slightly as the rocket launcher turned in mid-air and pointed at her.

“Wait wh—“

There was a pony-shattering kaboom.

“Guardian down,” Rainbow’s ghost supplied.

* * *

Sunset reappeared, human-shaped and with all her armor in place. “Thanks,” she said.

“A little warning next time?” Rainbow glowered.

“I can’t exactly go back to the tower like that,” Sunset said. “Ikora hates me enough as it is.” She rolled her eyes. “Figures; I finally learn Fireborn, and I can’t demonstrate it.”

“It might not be that bad?” Rainbow said with more than a bit of uncertainty.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Ikora already thinks I’m wasting my Light. If we add in the fact that I’ve been investigating my past, much less discovered it...”

Rainbow nodded. “Okay, so we plan.”

“Since when do you plan?”

“Since a lack of planning gets guardians killed.” She ran her hand through her hair. “No, it hasn’t actually happened to anyone on my teams,” she corrected, “but there’ve been way too many close calls.”

She shook her head. “Anyway, you never gave me an answer on that ramen shop.”

Sunset hesitated.

“Fair warning,” Rainbow added, “Pinkie’s going to throw you a party. And if it’s not now, it’ll be a surprise party.”

“Ramen sounds great!” Sunset said quickly.

Rainbow grinned. “Awesome.” She turned to her ghost. “Tank, send the coordinates over to...” She turned to Sunset’s ghost.

“Oh,” it said, shifting awkwardly. “I’m just—“

“Ray.” Sunset said. She glanced at her ghost.

It looked at her. “Ray,” it said, sounding it out. “My name’s Ray.”

Rainbow nodded. “Cool. See you there!” she said as she and tank transmatted out.

Sunset and Ray stood in silence for a moment.

“So...” Ray said. “Sunset, is it?”

“Sunset Shimmer.”

“And you’re a pony?”

Sunset smiled. “I’ve got a lot to tell you.”


	2. Ramen

“So, you’re from another world.”

“Yes.”

“But at some point in your adolescence, you ran away to a different world.”

“...yes.”

“And then you went back to the first world, stole a magical artifact, ran back to the second world, used said magical artifact, transforming yourself into—let me make sure I’m quoting you correctly—‘a raging she-demon’ and releasing magic into the second world?”

Sunset groaned. “Yes.”

“Okay, just making sure I’ve got everything correct so far. You were then defeated by Princess Twilight who was wielding—did I hear you correctly—the ‘magic of friendship.’ Still right?”

Sunset pointed a finger at her ghost’s eye. “Hey now, I know it sounds corny—“

“Because it is.”

Sunset sighed. “Ray, I know you’re teasing me right now. But if...” She blinked back a few tears and shook her head. “Wow, did not expect that,” she muttered to herself.

Ray hovered closer. “Are you okay?” it said.

“Yeah,” Sunset said, gripping the flight yoke a little tighter. “I think everything’s coming back to me at once.”

They flew on in silence for a while.

“It was like my soul was exposed,” Sunset said finally. Ray just hovered in place, so she continued. “It wasn’t just a ‘magic all the nasty away’ beam, it... It brought out all the nasty and showed it to me. In painstaking detail.” She blinked away a few more tears. “Only a little of what I did that night was actually magical, so there was only a little stolen magic for the Elements of Harmony to purify. Everything else was just... me.

“And so there I was, at the bottom of a crater, and knowing exactly why I was there. And when she offered me her hand, I had a choice. I could have slapped it away.”

“But you didn’t.”

Sunset shook her head. “I didn’t. She helped me up, she helped me make friends...”

She glanced at Ray. “Friendship really is the strongest magic in Equestria, you know. I know it sounds hokey and cheesy and stupid, but it’s the truth. It opens up spell possibilities that don’t exist otherwise, it makes magic more powerful than it would be otherwise...”

“Do you think it would help here?”

“Yes,” Sunset said without hesitation. “The Magic Of Friendship doesn’t just mean giving the Fallen a hug and thinking everything’s magically better. It can mean us standing united against adversity.” She thought for a second. “It could mean making friends with the Fallen that are willing to be friends.”

Ray gave Sunset what was clearly intended to be a stink eye.

Sunset shook her head. “I studied under Princess Celestia, an alicorn with the magical capacity to move the sun itself. She was the ruler of Equestria...” She blinked a few tears away. “Still is, probably.” She shook it off. “Anyway, there were two rules when it came to Equestria’s foreign policy.

“First, if we stood together, very few things could truly threaten Equestria. Twilight and her friends proved that several times over.

“And second, no enemy is more truly defeated than one that becomes a friend.”

Ray hovered in place for a moment. “I still don’t see how that can help against the Fallen.”

“Well, it worked in Equestria, largely because Celestia could drop the sun on anyone that opposed us. She never would, of course, but by the time any would-be threats realized that, they’d already negotiated a very favorable trade agreement, or whatever. The threat was just to get everyone to be reasonable.” Sunset bit her lip. “So now, we just need a Celestia.”

“Well, we don’t have one,” Ray said, and Sunset couldn’t tell if he was irritated with the conversation, or if this was the ongoing bitterness toward the still-inert Traveler.

“So,” Ray said after a moment, “what happened to bring you here?”

“Well, me and the girls from that school had a bunch of adventures. Had to do a lot to clean up all the magic that I let loose into that world, and for a while we had some magic of our own to use. We learned, we grew, we had fun...” She sighed. “And then we graduated and went our separate ways. I wasn’t from that world; it was only by a fluke and Principal Celestia’s kindness that I could go to that school in the first place. But when it came to colleges...” She trailed off.

“So you went back to Equestria?”

“Mmhmm. I still visited the other world fairly often; we were all still good friends. And they went on to do some really great things.”

Sunset stretched. “In the meantime, Princess Twilight decided she wanted to open some portals to other worlds...”

* * *

“And... check,” Spike said, rolling up the scroll with a flourish. “That’s the end of the pre-launch checklist.”

“Wonderful!” Princess Twilight said with a smile. “Now, what’s first on the launch checklist?”

Spike rummaged in his bag and pulled out another scroll. “Launch Checklist for Mirror Portal Mark II,” he read. “Step one: verify pre-launch checklist.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked at Sunset with a slight smile. “I mean, it’s on the checklist...”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. She looked just past Twilight to see Spike vibrating with barely constrained glee. She looked back at Twilight and smirked. “Get on with it.”

Twilight smiled back. “Pre-launch checklist verified.”

Spike checked it off. “Unicorns at the ready?”

Sunset looked across the room to Starlight Glimmer. “Ready,” they said together.

Spike checked it off. “Instrumentation ready?”

Sunset looked to the corner where, behind a panel of crystals and gauges that would put Vinyl Scratch’s soundboard to shame, Starswirl the Bearded sat. “Instrumentation ready,” he said.

“Still can’t believe that’s him,” Sunset muttered to herself.

Spike checked it off. “Last step is to fire the spell, Twilight,” he said.

Twilight nodded and pulled him close with her wing. “Thanks, Spike.” She glanced at Sunset and Starlight. “On my mark,” she said, flaring her wings and igniting her horn.

On cue, Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight fired a specialized spell at the focusing crystal in the center of the room. The energy passed through Starswirl’s instrument panel and fed into the crystal arch at the other end of the room. Slowly, the arch filled with energy until it passed a threshold and filled the entire archway with a swirling miasma of energy. 

Twilight cut off her spell and trotted over to the arch. Sunset and Starlight kept their spells alive, but their job was now keeping the system stable, not charging it.

“Anything?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off the arch.

“I have something,” Starswirl said. “Focusing the apparatus now.”

“Unstable?”

“Only moderately. I wager we’ll have about two minutes to anchor the portal once we’re locked.” He turned a pair of crystals slowly. “Unicorns stand by...”

With a start he threw the biggest switch on his panel. “Instrumentation locked.” He looked at the portal with narrowed eyes. “One minute, Princess.”

“Call me Twilight,” she said reflexively. Grabbing four crystal-infused rods in her magic, she trotted through the portal.

The remaining unicorns waited anxiously, though not nearly as anxiously as Spike who was twitching his wings nervously. After a very long fifteen seconds, Twilight reappeared through the portal.

“Portal anchored,” she said with a wide smile.

Starlight and Sunset released their spells with a groan. Starswirl made a few final adjustments before nodding in satisfaction and stepping away from the panel. The three of them approached Twilight.

“Well?” Sunset said.

Twilight grinned and nearly vibrated in place. “Come take a look!”

“I’ll stay put here for now,” Starswirl said with a tired smile.

Twilight nodded. “Okay, okay, but Sunset? Starlight?” The two nodded. Twilight made a noise suspiciously similar to “squee!” and led them through the portal.

When the light from the portal (and the transformation-induced nausea) faded, Sunset pulled herself to her feet. “Human world,” she said.

“Mmhmm,” Twilight answered. “Though more muted skin tones.”

Sunset looked her over. “But you kept your mane.”

Twilight smirked at her. “Yeah, you did.”

“Um, girls?” Starlight said, pointing at something in the distance, “what’s that?”

They followed her gaze and saw a gigantic polished sphere hovering in the air, glowing with a subtle light.

“That,” said a mildly accented voice behind them, “is The Traveler.”

They turned around to see a middle-aged man in outdoor gear and a friendly smile. “Though if you’re asking that,” he said, “then I’m guessing you ain’t from around here.”

* * *

Sunset laughed. “When she saw what you were able to do with Light, the technological advances you were making, Twilight practically _begged_ Celestia to open trade routes with you.”

Ray hovered closer. “You were here for the Golden Age?” he said excitedly.

“Oh yeah,” Sunset said with a smile. “All of us were over here at one point or another. Rainbow loved the stuff on Mars, Applejack helped with the plants on Mercury, and something about Io fascinated Fluttershy.”

“But what about...” Ray trailed off and looked toward their destination.

Sunset followed his gaze. The clouds around the Last City were growing larger as they approached.

“I didn’t talk to The Traveler,” Sunset said quietly. “It was just kind of... there. Every so often it would head off to one of the other planets for a week to check on the terraforming, see how things were, then it would come back to Earth.” She closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the reminiscing. “When it wasn’t near, you could still feel its presence. The Light that it infused into everything. But when you were next to it...” She grinned. “Ideas came quicker. Things fell into place faster. Stuff worked better than it was supposed to. It was like we all became better versions of ourselves. And that’s what it wanted.”

The jumpship broke through the cloud cover. As the approached the tower, they flew close enough to see The Traveler’s injuries close up. Sunset pressed a hand against the glass and blinked back tears.

“Do you know what hurt it?” Ray asked, his flat voice the saddest that Sunset could remember.

She shook her head. “I didn’t survive long enough to see...”

* * *

Sunset ran into the room housing the portal. “Twilight!” she yelled in relief. “Thank Celestia; are you okay? Have you seen...” She motioned outside. “That?”

Twilight turned from the portal, her face carefully neutral. “Have you seen our friends?” She said sharply.

Sunset shook her head. “No one’s answering on the comms, and none of the comsats have signal.” She ran closer. “You don’t think...”

Twilight turned her attention back to the portal. “You’ve seen what’s out there, Sunset Shimmer,” she said. “You tell me.”

As if to answer her, the ground shook.

“Higher magnitude, shorter interval,” Twilight muttered. “Sunset, that wasn’t a rhetorical question.”

Sunset blinked. “I’m sure they’re—“

“Stop.”

Sunset felt the blood drain from her face. To an outside observer, Twilight was completely closed off and composed. But Sunset knew the tells. Knew that the moisture at the corner of her eyes was involuntary. Knew that the fingers rubbing against each other was a nervous tic. Knew that those lips were pressed together too tightly for Twilight to be anything other than terrified.

“As Princess of Equestria, and the acting Princess on this side of the portal, I need you to answer honestly: are our friends okay?”

Sunset bit her lip and forced down the bile. “There’s no communication with the other planets, Princess,” she said. “Practically speaking, we should assume the worst.”

Twilight nodded. Her breath hitched slightly. “Get through the portal,” she said, “and tell them—“

“No.”

Twilight blinked. “Sunset—“

“You’re going to destroy the portal. You’re going to make sure whatever is out there isn’t going to make it back to Equestria. And you’re not about to ask me to go back to Equestria without you.”

Twilight bowed her head. “I can’t just turn it off,” she said softly. “Whatever this is, it disrupts Light. It works on a quantum level. If I want to keep it from finding Equestria, I have to break the connection to our universe completely. Permanently.” She raised her head and looked at Sunset. “Please,” she said, “I know how hard it was for you to be trapped away from home; don’t make me be the one to do it to you again.”

Sunset shook her head. “You’re here. My friends are here. I’m already home.” She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Do what you need to do, Princess.”

Twilight nodded and walked over to the portal. “I already gave a message to Starlight and tossed that journal through. Only thing left is to destroy the anchor crystal.” She pulled a milky white crystal from the center of the arch, deactivating the portal.

“So now we just blow that up?” Sunset said.

Twilight smirked. “Sort of.” She clenched the crystal in her fist, and her fist began to glow a deep purple.

Sunset gawked. “Magic?”

“Our magic and the Traveler’s Light aren’t that different. There are some different constants, but the basic rules are the same.” She opened her fist and let what was left of the now-pulverized crystal fall to the floor.

Sunset smiled briefly before another tremor shook the building, bringing their thoughts back to the situation.

Twilight frowned. “Of course I don’t discover that until...”

Sunset did her best to smile and put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “You discovered it in time to save Equestria.” She scanned the edges of the room and walked over to a rifle leaning against the wall. “Want to try and save a few more people?”

Twilight’s hand glowed purple again. “It’s like you read my mind.”

* * *

“So the portal is completely destroyed?” Rainbow Dash said, tapping the side of her ramen bowl with her chopsticks.

Sunset nodded. “And from what I’ve seen of the Darkness since then, I’m glad we destroyed it.”

Rainbow grimaced and swore under her breath. “The girls are not going to like that,” she muttered. “ _I_ don’t like that.”

“I don’t like it either,” Sunset said a little defensively.

Rainbow shook her head. “Not saying you do. Just...”

Sunset added a grimace if her own. “Yeah.” She took another bit of her own ramen. “You told the other girls about...”

Rainbow looked over Sunset’s shoulder. “See for yourself.”

Sunset turned around to see a titan wearing bright pink armor, an even pinker afro, and a pink-and-white shotgun aimed at her face.

The titan pulled the trigger.

Sunset blinked away the flash. “Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie nodded.

“Did you just shoot me in the face with a Party Shotgun?”

Pinkie nodded.

Sunset felt her head with her right hand. Sure enough, a cardboard party hat poked out of her hair. She looked at her left hand to find it holding a pair of cake pops, one chocolate and one vanilla, both with colorful sprinkles.

She turned around to hand one to Rainbow, but she was already holding up two of her own. “I was in the blast radius,” she explained.

Sunset turned back to Pinkie and, without breaking eye contact, ate the chocolate pop. “Do I want to know?” she said finally.

“Nope!” Pinkie said

Sunset nodded, then lunged forward and threw her arms around Pinkie. “I’m so happy to see you,” she whispered.

Pinkie hugged her back briefly, then abruptly pulled away and stepped to the side and yelled “Twitchy tail!”

Sunset blinked in confusion. “But we don’t eve—“

“SUNSET SHIMMER!”

Sunset barely had time to not-recognize the voice before she was attacked by a hunter-shaped missile with pink hair. “Oh my goodness I was so worried when I saw you and you didn’t recognize me but then I got Rainbow’s message and you’re here and you’re okay and I was so afraid you were gone forever and...”

Sunset managed to push the hunter away to arm’s length. “Wait, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy pushed her bangs behind her ear and nodded.

Sunset choked out something between a laugh and a sob and pulled her back into the hug.

“I missed you,” Fluttershy said.

“I missed you too,” Sunset said. “Even if I didn’t know it, I missed you.”

After another moment, Fluttershy broke the hug, patted Sunset on the shoulder, and stepped aside to let the titan that had just arrived in.

Sunset took one look at her and facepalmed. “Of course you were.”

The blonde-haired titan tipped her Stetson. “Like I said,” she drawled, “I had a hunch it would work out. Though I was still a mite bit surprised it worked out this quickly.”

Sunset smiled and held out her hand. “Good to see you, Applejack.”

Applejack grasped her hand and pulled her into a hug. “Good to see you too, Sugarcube.”

“No hard feelings from earlier?”

Applejack smirked at Sunset. “Wouldn’t mind some help with a patrol or two.”

Sunset smiled back. “It’s a deal.”

Applejack went to sit down at the table. Sunset looked out into the city and saw a warlock in a white robe and purple hair running up the street, muttering “excuse me” and “pardon me” and “sorry, darling” the entire way.

Sunset chuckled to herself. “Never change, Rarity.”

Rarity finally ran up, only slightly out of breath. “I do apologize for being so late, Darlings, but—“

“But you were caught in the throes of inspiration and you just _had_ to seize the moment?” Sunset interrupted with a smile.

Rarity clutched her chest in mock offense. “Sunset, dear, why _ever_ would you think that?” she said. “Besides, the inspiration came years ago, I just had to pull the result out of my vault.” She handed a warlock bond emblazoned with Sunset’s cutie mark to her. “I do hope you find it satisfactory; I haven’t quite convinced dear Eva to disclose all of her secrets...”

“It’s perfect,” Sunset whispered, blinking back a few tears and running her thumb along the band.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's a modified Party Crasher +1. No, I don't know how she did it.


End file.
